


Balancing

by Oparu



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-24
Updated: 2016-09-24
Packaged: 2018-08-17 00:17:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8123200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oparu/pseuds/Oparu
Summary: Regina tries to make dinner with a grumpy dragon baby, Henry helps, a lot.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [holdouttrout](https://archiveofourown.org/users/holdouttrout/gifts).



> for trout! who loves fluff as much as I do :)

“Hey mom,” Henry says, shutting the fridge. 

Regina turns, started by the voice and the noise.  Baby Iggie squirms for a moment against her chest, but she rocks until she settles again. She really should have grabbed the baby sling, so she’d have both arms free, but Iggie’s asleep, and Mal won’t be home for another hour and it’ll just make everyone’s life so much easier if Iggie continues to sleep. 

Even if dinner is late. 

“Hi, how was your biology?”

“I’m maintaining homeostasis just fine,” he says with a grin. He opens his soda, sipping the top as it starts to fizz over the rim. “Dinner should help with that.”

“Would you get an onion?” she starts, but he’s looked at the cutting board and the package of beef and he knows what dinner is without her even saying. It’s a horrible, blustery day outside, snow flying horizontal. Perfect for chili. 

He sets a round, red onion on the counter and Regina beams at him. He’s so helpful. She starts removing the plastic and turns just as he’s added oil to the pan. 

“I got it,” he says, reaching for the garlic. 

Iggie stirs, again, and she hums to her, wishing she could do something with her breasts that the baby’s more interesting in nuzzling than she was an hour ago. 

“Did you have English too?”

“Yeah.” He rips the skin of the onion off and grins. “But that’s fun.” 

“Fun?” 

“Yeah, we’re talking about how Shakespeare might have written about the conflict between King George and King Midas back in the Enchanted Forest. Grace and I are writing some historical speeches for next Tuesday. It’s been fun.” 

Baby snuffles, again, and Regina lifts her just a little off her chest, but that makes her squawk, so she sets her down again, rocking. 

“She’s hungry too?”

Regina smiles at him over the baby’s head, shifting her weight back and forth, rocking so that the baby settles. “Mal’s a little late.”

“Haven’t figured out the pump thing then?” He dices the onion neatly while she circles the island for the can of tomatoes, baby in hand. 

Sighing, she balances the baby with her right hand and grabs the tomatoes with her left. How does she explain that breast pump makes Mal’s already sore breasts even more tender and her entire body’s been through something so intense that everything is sore. She doesn’t have the heart to try and coax her into using it when sometimes feeding the baby has Mal in tears. 

 “It’s not the most comfortable thing, and everything’s kind of sore right now.” 

Henry grimaces and nods. “I bet.”

“They can always use magic if they get stuck in the snow,” she says, dancing again. 

The onions start to sizzle, then Henry adds the beef. (when did he open it?) He stirs for a little while and it starts to brown, with the garlic, that he minced, while she danced around with the baby and her useless breasts. 

Luckily, dragon babies are entirely unbothered by the smell of roasting garlic, or chili. She can probably handle more chili than Regina can, even less than a month old. 

“Tomatoes,” Henry says, tilting his head towards the can. “If you can.”

“Henry…” The chili’s nearly assembled, and her hands aren’t even dirty. He’s done all the work. 

“What?”

“I was making dinner.”

“And Ziggy Stardust needs you, so I got it.”

“Ziggy Stardust?” she repeats, because he did not just refer to the baby as David Bowie. 

“Emma started it. I think it works. She’s a little young for glitter, but I was thinking Halloween would really work.” He sets down the spoon and grins. “She’ll be adorable.”

“You planned her Halloween costume?”

“Yeah.” Henry reaches for spices and dumps them in, just like she does, not even bothering to measure. “I mean, we were just joking about it. Emma says she thinks baby costumes are hilarious, and she never got to pick one for me, even though she remembers picking the ones you did.”

He was such an adorable apple when he was a few months old. 

“That must have been an interesting discussion.” Her chest aches for Emma, missing all those moments. She has them now, but doesn’t. 

Iggie accepts Regina’s finger as a poor substitute for a nipple and starts to suck. Henry notices over the pot and smiles. “Guess she really is hungry.”

Mal’s breasts have to hurt by now and Regina mentally gives her all of five more minutes before Mal just arrives, entirely done with the act of driving through snow. 

Five minutes was too generous. The chili’s just settled in to zimmer while Henry starts on cornbread and Mal arrives home through the front door, covered in snow. 

Hearing her voice, Iggie starts to wail the moment Mal speaks and they shuffle her out of her coat and Regina has to help her with the confounding nursing bra, again, because Mal has three of them and only one makes sense. Iggie doesn’t care because the moment she has the chance, she’s attached. 

Mal sighs, almost moans, bites her lip and then smiles. “Hi.”

“Sorry.”

“Regina,” Mal kisses her before she says anything else. 

“Henry made dinner.”

“Oh?”

“I started, failed completely because of–”

“Ziggy Spaceman-”

“Stardust.” 

“Oh that’s much more pleasant.” Mal tugs her scarf over the baby’s head for Henry’s sake and follows Regina into the kitchen. “I believe Emma can keep using that as a nickname.”

Regina stops her, just outside, and kisses her. “Welcome home, we missed you.” She drops her eyes to Mal’s very enhanced breasts and smirks. “Can’t say I blame her.”

“I can hear you,” Henry calls from the kitchen. “I might screw up and poor in too much chili-”

“No such thing-” Mal interjects.

“Or none.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“You’re flirting with my mom.”

“Your mom was flirting with me,” Mal jokes, leaning against the fridge, her hand on Iggie’s back. “At least, I think so.”

“Long meeting?”

“I couldn’t concentrate. I know you were all here and-” (my breasts- she mouths to Regina) “started to miss you, acutely, about an hour ago.”

“Sorry,” Regina answers. “I could have taken the meeting.”

“It would have been four hours with you trying to deal with the fairies and their school referendum. All but the green one are slightly afraid of me.” 

“Tinkerbelle.”

“She has more than pixie dust between her ears, some of the others…”

“Mal–”

“I’ve learned the tax code of Maine, It’s about time they did.”

Henry chuckles. “Perhaps you were more motivated.”

“Oh?”

“You did say taxes were like hoarding the entire town in a spreadsheet.”

“Doesn’t everyone want a horde?” Mal teases him, eyes wide and playful. 

Regina shakes her head and leans close. 

Henry turns for the oven. “Kiss now, while I’m not looking.”

Mal tastes of coffee, which better have been decaf, if she wants Iggie to sleep at all. She knows. 

Mal strokes her chin and smiles. “We’re all done.” 

“You’re not,” Henry teases. “But that’s all right. Ziggy and I will tolerate it. Somehow.” 

Standing between the two of them, with her hand on her tiny daughter, Regina doesn’t need a spreadsheet or a dragon’s horde. She has everything, right here. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> and I forgot to explain (clearly you all should just know my favorite Dragon Queen baby name. Baby's name is Ignacia, which means fire in Spanish. In my head, it's just the DQ baby name for me. 
> 
> Which becomes Iggie and Ziggy Stardust.


End file.
